Organ donor opt-out plan rejected
A system of "presumed consent" is not the best way to increase the number of organs available for transplant, the head of a government taskforce has warned.
Elisabeth Buggins, of the UK Organ Donation Taskforce, set up by the Government to help increase the number of donors, said evidence examined by her committee had led them to conclude that an "opt-out" system was not the best method of boosting the number of organs for transplant.
"The Government asked us to look at presumed consent. We have looked at it very carefully, we have amassed over 400 pages of evidence from around the world," she told BBC Breakfast.
"Our conclusion, quite clearly, is that "opt-out" is not the best way of increasing the number of organs available."
The recommendation from the taskforce, an independent advisory committee, has come despite Prime Minister Gordon Brown appearing to favour an overhaul of the existing law which would require people to actively opt-out of the donor register if they did not want body parts transplanted after death.
Mrs Buggins told BBC Breakfast that Spain has the best organ donation rate in the world.
"Their leader says that presumed consent hasn't made any difference," she said.
"They had presumed consent from 1979 to 1989 and the donation rate was almost flat. Then they made the changes which we are just in the process of beginning and their donation rate is now three times as good as ours. We want to see that happen in the UK."
She added: "We have found that doctors are worried that it might erode trust, if we brought in presumed consent, that donor families would like to have the choice, they don't want to feel bounced into the decision. People who have received an organ, said that the concept of a gift, of that organ being freely given, by the family, by the donor, is very important to them."
An estimated 8,000 people in the UK currently need an organ transplant but only 3,000 operations are carried out each year. Around 1,000 people in the UK die every year after waiting for a transplant.
